News in Church News

Archbishop of Westminster, leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales and critic of the government's austerity cuts. Archbishop Vincent Nichols speaks to reporters in the week before his is to be made a cardinal by Pope Francis.

Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Vincent Nichols to the Congregation for Bishops. Archbishop Vincent said: “It is a privilege to assist in the important task of appointing Bishops and I am honoured to have been asked to undertake this role by Pope Francis. I look forward to making whatever contribution I can to the work of the Apostolic See.”

Vincent Nichols warned of dangerous clashes in Egypt, Iraq and Syria The lead Catholic in England and Wales spoke at Westminster Cathedral He said: 'Christians are the most widely persecuted... group in the world'

Liu Yunxiao may have visited more Chinese churches than anyone, and there’s little doubt no one has seen more of them in his home province of Shaanxi. A stocky man with silvery hair, 65-year-old Liu has spent the past 30 years documenting Catholicism in this central province, often in mind-numbing detail.

Pope Francis has published his first and very prolix papal teaching document entitled Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of Evangelization). With a tone of delightful self-mocking he observes, "I am aware that nowadays documents do not arouse the same interest as in the past and that they are quickly forgotten."

Mgr O’Toole’s piscopal ordination will take place at 2pm on Tuesday 28 January 2014 at the Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Boniface in Plymouth. He will succeed Bishop Christopher Budd, who has been Bishop of Plymouth since 1986.

Pope Francis is surveying Catholics on family issues including homosexual marriage and divorce in preparation for next year's bishop synod, according to NBC News.Veteran Vatican observers say the survey is remarkable on a number of levels in that it deals with subjects previous Popes appeared to regard as off-limits and seeks feedback from rank-and-file Catholics.

More than 1,000 bishops, archbishops and senior clergy, claiming to represent around 40 million Anglicans, are due to gather in Kenya later this month to discuss what they see as a liberal drift within the Church of England and other western branches of the church.

The reform of the Curia and the attribution of of more incisive role to the laity were among the principal themes considered in the meeting of the Council of Cardinals, instituted by the Pope to assist him in the governance of the Church, said the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J., in a briefing with journalists.

The Oct. 1-3 maiden summit of eight cardinals from around the world, tapped by the pope to advise him on governance and reform, profiles as a potentially critical turning point. An ongoing cleanup of Vatican finances; Reorganization, and potential downsizing, of the Vatican bureaucracy; Ensuring that the right people end up in the right Roman jobs; Vexed pastoral questions such as annulments and divorced and remarried Catholics.

Pope Francis has named Mgr Leo Cushley as the new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh. The appointment was announced at noon today in Rome. The archbishop-elect succeeds Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who led the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh from 1985 until his resignation in February.

Cardinal Basil Hume came to check how we had got on and emerged saying, 'Coraggio - you have all passed. And from what I hear [from what was said in the interviews], one of you is going to be a bishop.' It was clear to us that he meant Alan Hopes, who this week Pope Francis announced would be the next Bishop of East Anglia.

Cardinal John Baptist Pham Minh Man, 79, said the authorities state that their policies aim to ensure social order and security. But he said that “they govern the country with self-defence instincts, fearing for their own interests, rather than searching for humanitarian goodwill.”

Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Alan Hopes, currently Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, to become the fourth Bishop of East Anglia. The priests of Cambridgeshire during their deanery meeting held in Buckden today, the 12th of June, welcome their new bishop.

Former Pope Benedict has returned to the Vatican, two months after becoming the first pontiff to resign in 600 years. He was flown by helicopter from the Castel Gandolfo papal summer residence to live permanently in Vatican City.

Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian, who died on 27 April aged 96, revived the Catholic church in Shanghai after years of Maoist persecution. His death leaves one of China's largest and wealthiest dioceses deeply unsettled, riven by tensions generated by the Communist Party's insistence on tightly controlling all organised religions.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Tuesday celebrates his 86th birthday as the first former pope in over 700 years at his temporary home of Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence near Rome. His successor Pope Francis called to wish him a happy birthday and celebrated Mass in his honor.

A Vatican announcement yesterday that Francis has named eight cardinals to advise him on governance represents the first concrete step towards the reform that was so much in the air during the run-up to the conclave that propelled a Latin American outsider to the papacy.